Intuitive Investigation

There is an art to exploring old ruins, ancient temples, and alien citadels. It involves a combination of investigative know-how, luck, and the confidence to forge forward at the right times even when things seem dangerous or unstable. Scravers who wish to specialize in reclaiming tech are encouraged to read the journals of other explorers, detailing their travels and travails in old facilities and weird places. From this wealth of knowlege and some practical expertise comes a sense of how to best make use of one’s time in a building or dig site of lost technology.

This skill is used for several purposes, the first is simply finding one’s way around the site, and discovering the rooms or areas that contain the best loot. Another is finding the sites at all, analyzing geography (and sometimes geographic or geologic history) to see where the site might have been placed, and to locate key features of the landscape that indicate a buried or partially buried site. Finally, this skill can be used to survive inside a site. When things go south because of an ancient bioweapon, long dormant (but recently activated!) deathbots, or psychic phantasms, the character knows what to do.

The value of reading journals from Scravers who were successful enough to enter ancient ruins and come out again can’t be underestimated, and as such the Guild doesn’t let just anyone have access to that information. However, the barrier for entry is not too high, partly because the knowledge is something that someone could just work out through experience and luck, and partly because the guild is quite proud of the exploits of its heroes. Whenever the guild is having problems with its public image, it likes to focus more on the exploits of daring Scraver adventurers.

Advanced Use: When the character has at least 3 dots in this specialty skill, she can spend time reading any kind of detailed history or journal and possibly discover another ancient site. The character eventually builds up a general knowledge of where sites may have been lost, and which ones have already been reclaimed or destroyed.

Non-Human Tech: This skill functions normally in alien installations, since it’s all about surviving and navigating, not using technology.

Annunki Tech: Annunki sites tend to baffle even the most creative-minded person, so using this skill to navigate inside one imposes a -2 penalty on the dice pool. There is no penalty for tracking down such sites, unless the site is so weird that it actually moves, in which case the -2 applies. Site-survival rolls are never penalized.